Legal Glossary

The legal glossary is a comprehensive index of legal terms aimed at educating and helping consumers better understand some of the legal terminology and jargon that is often used in describing legal matters.

A judge's written explanation of a decision of the court. In an appeal, multiple opinions may be written. The court’s ruling comes from a majority of judges and forms the majority opinion. A dissenting opinion disagrees with the majority because of the reasoning and/or the principles of law on which the decision is based. A concurring opinion agrees with the end result of the court but offers further comment possibly because they disagree with how the court reached its conclusion.